2 Chronicles 30:18 – “May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets their heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of their ancestors—even if they are not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.”
I grew up on contemporary Christian music in the 80’s. Most of it was cheesy, and some of it was horrible, but regardless, I have fond memories of a lot of artists and their music from then.
One singer who comes to mind is Bryan Duncan. He started out as the lead singer of Sweet Comfort Band before launching into a solo career. The first album he cut was called Have Yourself Committed. The title track from that album is a vivacious and bubbly pop/jazz number about how a Christian receives the mercy of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in the same way a person can receive mercy in a court of law.
Here is a snippet of the bridge lyrics from that song:
Still, the Judge has made a way
For you to get off clean, scot-free, yeah
And all you have to do is have yourself committed
Trust in, cling to, and rely on Me.
This might be nitpicky, but I have a problem with the notion that we get off scot-free. Put another way, there is a difference between being shown the mercy of the court where justice is overlooked and the mercy of Jesus. Jesus’ mercy does not forego justice. He died in our place. Justice was not overlooked; rather, we have someone who takes the penalty for our guilty verdict.
And the reason I make this nitpicky point today is so that we never lose sight of the fact that God never overlooks justice. But His mercy always finds a way for the penalty to be paid without losing the opportunity to maintain a loving Father-child relationship at the same time.
So, maybe that still means we got off scot-free. But it doesn’t mean that the judgment was thrown out, either.
In the verse above, we read the prayer of King Hezekiah (an Old Testament king of Judah). They’re about to celebrate Passover, and he’s invited a bunch of citizens from neighbouring cities and towns who are not in his kingdom but are still Jewish.
Prior to this, Hezekiah got the entire city of Jerusalem prepared for this feast by restoring all elements of the temple and getting all the priests to re-consecrate (ceremonial cleansing for the purpose of being made holy) themselves.
But now, all these outsiders pour into the city who were not a part of the purification that took place in Jerusalem. Normally, during a Passover celebration, each person sacrificed a goat for themselves and their household as a sin offering to God. But in order to make a sin offering on behalf of others, that person needed to be consecrated in advance. Since none of these outsiders had been consecrated, they were not qualified to make that sacrifice.
And so, Hezekiah prays for God’s mercy on them, since they came to celebrate Passover with right hearts—they wanted to honour God. God did as Hezekiah asked, and He showed them mercy.
But how did He show mercy? By letting unclean people make animal sacrifice anyway, even though the law forbid it? Not at all. The chapter says that the newly consecrated priests made sacrifice on the people’s behalf. They were the substitutes needed to allow all present to benefit from the sin offering.
That old story about a people long since gone has a powerful lesson for us today. God used a consecrated Priest named Jesus to make a sin offering on behalf of all who receive His gift. Since we are not holy on our own merits, but sacrifice for sin still has to be made, God Himself made the ultimate sacrifice. Jesus—who is God—laid down His life on a cross for us. That means we get to celebrate the passing over of death because of what He did. Justice was served, and best of all, an eternal, loving relationship can exist between Him and us.
So, thanks, Bryan Duncan, for writing this fun song which gave me a chance to make a distinction between justice-less mercy and the mercy of Christ.